WGSS Alumni Are Leaders in Their Fields
Let us know what you're up to by filling out our Alumni Bio form!
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Sierra Mack-Erb
2025 Graduate Certificate
Sierra and her wife, Hannah, eloped post-graduation while spending over a month in Anchorage, Alaska. During this time, she has continued sharing her ISU graduate research with interested organizations and students. Most recently, her multimedia research exhibit, “Rural Perspectives on Design," which was first displayed in Illinois at the WGSS Rachel Cooper Gallery, has been acquired by the Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where it will be on display for the academic year. Sierra’s WGSS classes profoundly influenced her approach to research and commitment to accessible, inclusive research practices.
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Samantha Tate
2025 Graduate Certificate
Samantha has been working as an individual counselor at YWCA Stepping Stones. In her role, she provides trauma-informed counseling services for survivors of sexual assault. She also advocates for survivors via the 24/7 hotline and in the medical setting, presenting at the hospital to help provide both advocacy and emotional support. She often uses feminist theory and other theories that she became familiar with through earning her certificate as a foundation for the services she is providing. She says it’s important to understand systems and oppression that her clients face in order to be a safe place and help them in their recovery journey.
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Emily Mepham
2024 Minor
For the past year, Emily has been in the Disney College Program at Walt Disney World in Florida. During the program, she’s been able to attend 100 hours’ worth of learning opportunities with subjects like Career Readiness, Leadership, and Hospitality. WGSS taught her the importance of inclusion, which influences how she interacts with guests to ensure that they feel safe and welcomed.
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Sheyania Hughes
2023 Graduate Certificate
Since graduating with her MS in College Student Personnel Administration and graduate certificate in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Sheyania continued working in higher education and fraternal spaces. She currently serves as a Collegiate Support Manager at Sigma Kappa Sorority, where she supports collegiate chapters across the country and oversees chapter operations, volunteer collaboration, and staff training. She leads workshops on topics such as student leadership, health and safety, identity development, and body image—continuing her passion for empowering students and promoting inclusion in campus communities.
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Courtney Ebersole
2023 Graduate Certificate, 2020 Minor
Upon graduating from ISU with her master's degree in sociology and the WGSS Graduate Certificate, she remained at ISU for an additional year as an adjunct instructor in the WGSS program. Additionally, she won the James L. Fisher Outstanding Thesis award at the college level for her thesis, "Let’s Talk About Sex (Work), Baby: Women College Students and Their Experiences Producing Online Sex Work.” Currently, she is a doctoral student in sociology and works as a teaching assistant/lecturer at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.
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Mireya Herrera
2022 Minor
Mireya is enrolled in a master’s program at Ball State University for Applied Behavioral Analysis. She works as a travel Registered Behavioral Technician servicing individuals with autism and is working towards becoming a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst.
The WGSS Program made her want to give back to her community and work with those who may not have the ability to speak up for themselves. -
Jen Bresley
2022 Minor
Jen is currently pursuing a master's degree in library and information science at the University of Arizona. She became a Young Adult Programmer at a library and works closely with other community organizations to conduct programming and outreach.
She uses her WGSS knowledge every day in her job and personal life. When she creates displays, participates in collection development, and interacts with patrons at her library, she stops and thinks about how she can make a more inclusive environment. -
Brooke Melvin
2021 Graduate Certificate
After graduating with her WGSS minor, she attended law school at SIUC and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 2024. She passed the bar exam last summer and has been a licensed and practicing attorney since. Her WGSS experience expanded her knowledge and understanding of social issues and history, especially in relation to LGBTQIA+ communities.
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Jena Self Garrett
2021 Graduate Certificate
Jena took a huge leap of faith after completing her WGSS Graduate Certificate. She opened her own business in downtown Bloomington, The Energy Hut (200 W. Monroe St, Ste 104 - inside Fox and Hounds salon building) serves herbal tea and protein shakes. She uses her feminist toolkit to continue navigating life, relationships, and interactions with individuals each day.
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Loretta Addo-Danso
2021 Graduate Certificate
As a current legal advocate for survivors, she has been able to apply the theories and lessons gained from WGSS in her work. She is starting her PhD in Criminology at the University of Delaware this fall. Loretta looks forward to conducting more research on gender based violence, feminism, and intesectionality theory in hopes that her studies help shape policy-making and implementation in the country and worldwide.
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Paige Rogge
2021 Graduate Certificate
Paige completed her MSW internship at Gateway Family Services of Illinois and was hired as a clinical therapist specializing in the treatment of women and youth with complex developmental trauma. Her therapy clients include a handful of inspiring LGBTQ+ teens who continue to teach her about the beauty of our diverse humanity. She uses Trauma-Focused Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, as well as other neuroscience-based therapies, to help clients process and cope with traumatic stress. She credits the WGSS program for her unique insight into the sturggles her clients face and her ability to make an impact in her corner of the world.
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Radiance Campbell
2019 Minor
Radiance recently completed her first year at Georgetown Law and began her position as a Lane Evans Home Court Fellow at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. She is thrilled to continue working on issues of housing justice and becoming a part of the legal and organizing community Washington, D.C. She is also a Blume Public Interest Scholar.
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Xan Daggett
2019 Minor; 2024 Graduate Certificate
After graduating from ISU in 2019, Xan taught ELA for three years in Decatur, IL. They were a founding member of Decatur Public Schools' LGBTQ committee, and in the spring of 2022 won sponsor of the year for their efforts with the Gay-Straight Alliance. Xan returned to ISU in 2022, where they served as the Graduate Assistant for the WGSS Program, a member-at-large for ISU Queer Coalition, and a volunteer facilitator for McLean County's LGBTQIA2+ youth group, Over the Rainbow. They received the Acorn Equality Scholarship in 2022 for their continued research and advocacy within the queer and trans community, and in 2024 earned the Fisher Thesis Award for their master's thesis, "Digital Safe Spaces: Nonbinary Community Building on TikTok". Xan is currently the Assistant Director of the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at Illinois Wesleyan University.
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Chloe Ogasawara (Kasper)
2018 Minor
Since her graduation in 2018, Chloe has gained professional communications experiences in agency, nonprofit, and corporate communications. This year, she is celebrating her second work anniversary at Ace Hardware as Business Communications Specialist. In 2020, she joined the Association for Women in Communications (AWC), and led the AWC Book Club, which included members from a variety of local chapters across the nation. In this role, she curated their reading list to include a variety of genres and a diverse range of authors that fueled discussions around topics including women’s history, relationships, and gender inequalities in the workforce. During this time, she was also awarded AWC's Advancement Fund Grant to attend the 2022 AWC National Conference.
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Misia Grzybowski
2018 Graduate Certificate
After graduating with her WGSS Graduate Certificate and a Masters' in Psychology and College Student Personnell, Misia took a job as Senior Specialist for Peer Education and Advocacy in the Health Promotion and Wellness Office. She advises and supports to incredible student groups: Student Ending Rape Culture (SERC) and the Student Wellness Ambassador Team (SWAT). "I so often find myself returning to the books, theories, and lessons we learned in our WGSS classes and weave them in throughout the educational opportunities I help create for my students."
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Ana Roncero-Bellido
2017 Graduate Certificate
Ana is currently an Assistant Professor at Lewis University in English Studies, Latinx Literatures, and co-director of the WGS minor. She joined Lewis in 2020 from Gonzaga University where she also taught English and was affiliated with WGS. At Lewis, she worked to update the WGS program curriculum and name (to include gender) and recruited students. She’s mentored students to present their work at school conferences and taught students about gender and intersectionality in her literature and writing courses.
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Kaitlyn Tossie
2017 Graduate Certificate
Kaitlyn is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Kansas. She has also recently been appointed as Managing Editor of the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. Her dissertation explores how American playwrights remember and memorialize twenty-first century American traumas such as 9/11, the war on terror, and the Sandy Hook shooting.
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Venise Keys
2016 Graduate Certificate
Venise was accepted to the Wild Yams: Black Mothers Artist Residency for 2022. This innovative studio collaboration designed to support, uplift, and encourage sustainability and arts equity for Black Mothers and caretakers on Chicago's south side.
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Emily Johnston
2016 Graduate Certificate
Emily is the Associate Director of the Dimensions of Culture Writing Program at the University of San Diego, where she is also a lecturer. She received two teaching awards and was nominated for the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award and recently awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award. Her co-authored research on teaching empathy in first-year writing courses was accepted for publication by College Composition & Communication.
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Kevin Mell
2016 Minor
Kevin started his first year in the DePaul University College of Law, where he is a student member of the National Lawyers Guild. He is also a trained Legal Observer who monitors police conduct during organized actions and ensures that activists who are arrested during a protest are given access to a pro bono attorney.
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Fabiola Rosiles-Duran
2016 Minor
Fabiola went on to receive her Master of Arts in Women and Gender Studies at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. While at DePaul, she published her thesis, "The Telling is Political & Intentional: Resistance Through Testimonio for Latinas in Higher Education." She then pursued doctoral studies at Loyola University Chicago in the Higher Education program and will be publishing her dissertation: "'If They Can Help, They Will': A Community Cultural Wealth Approach On Parent Support And Its Influence On The College Success Of First-Generation Latinas." She is currently working as a Program Supervisor for the Working on Womanhood Program, has been a continuous awardee of the Paul T. & Concetta Mooney Fellowship Scholarship Award at Loyola, and named an alumni honoree in the DePaul University Chicago Changemakers Honor Roll.
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Brooke Barnhart
2015 Minor
Brooke completed her first year in the Gender and Women's Studies Master's Program at University of Wisconsin - Madison. Druing that time, she served as a teaching assistant for both Introduction to LGBTQ Studies and the Introduction to WGS course.
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Emma Belz
2015 Minor
Emma is pursuing her Master's degree in College Personnel Administration at Illinois State University and is currently working as a Graduate Assistant in Heartland Community College's Office of Engagement. She is an intern in Health Promotion and Wellness working on survivor support services and violence prevention education. She also volunteers with Stepping Stones.
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Malia Haanio
2015 Minor
Malia recently returned from China where she taught kindergarten and 1st grade English language. She has since accepted a position in a domestic violence and sexual assault prevention organization in Denver, Colorado.
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Matt Rillie
2015 Minor
Matthew currently works in diversity and inclusion at Columbia College Chicago, doing identity work, facilitation, and curriculum building for creative art students. He is pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Higher Education. From teaching Diversity and Inclusion focused workshops and classes, to sitting with a young person who is putting language to their identities in the world for the first time, he is honored to do his work. To this day he says his WGS education at Illinois State University has been the foundation of his work, and he attests so much of his critical thinking and intentional work to his time in the Program.
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Flourice Richardson
2015 Graduate Certificate
Flourice recently accepted an Assistant Professor position at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, NC. She will be assisting in the development of a technical writing program.
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Tomas Bolivar
2014 Minor
Tomas works as an Admissions Counselor at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. He uses his WGSS knowledge every day to craft diversity initiatives for new recruitment protocols. He was recently accepted into the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Master's Program at Loyola.
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Erin Clark (Frost)
2013 Graduate Certificate
Erin is at East Carolina University, where they've just been promoted to Professor. She is also a partner on a public interest technology grant that has established a zine lab at ECU. The zine lab is an explicitly feminist institution that facilitates grassroots knowledge dissemination. WGSS courses and community gave her the tools to think broadly about how to have feminist effects on the world around her. For example, broad thinking is part of what gave rise to the development of a counterculture genre lab in the current political climate.
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Tyler R Flockhart
2012 Graduate Certificate
Tyler credits his love of sociology to his time as ISU and the courses he took with Dr. Gerschick. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Viterbo University, where he teaches a range of courses on family, sex and gender, race and ethnicity, juvenile justice, research methods, and institutional inequalities. His research interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning, racially conservative and extremist groups, inequalities in parent-LGBTQ child relationships, and homophobia and heterosexism in popular television shows.
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Kelly Smith
2012 Graduate Certificate
Kelly has been a Faculty Director and college instructor for the past ten years. She recently joined the Learning Engineers Group in the Division of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where she consults with content experts, instructors, and administration to design engaging course for students. She and her husband are busy raising their two kids. You can still find her training for races, and outside of the stadium during tailgate season.
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Gina Stinnett
2016 Minor, 2018 Graduate Certificate
Gina is in her 6th year of the Composition and Cultural Rhetoric's PhD program at Syracuse University, and is currently writing her dissertation. Her work focuses on how neoliberalism impacts both policy rhetoric and cultural rhetoric around the opioid epidemic in America. When she's not working on academic things, she does community outreach with various harm reduction organizations in Syracuse and Chicago. In WGSS, she learned how to both think and organize more effectively. The WGSS classes she took at ISU gave her the tools to connect social issues to different historical, cultural, and political contexts. In addition to the theoretical toolbox she developed, she was able to gain experience with on-the-ground activism. She uses these skills daily in both her academic work and outreach work (or sometimes both at the same time, like when organizing Narcan trainings on campus!).
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Erica Thurman
2009 Minor
Erica writes and manages grants and contracts with the National Partnership for Women and Families, in Washington, D.C. She has had six book chapters accepted for publication in a three-book series on race and American television. She also blogs at Life Behind the Veil.
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Jenna Goldsmith
2008 Minor, 2010 Graduate Certificate, 2020 Outstanding Young Alumni Award Winner
Jenna is the current City of Rockford Poet Laureate. She recently returned to a position at Oregon State University Cascades in a remote capacity to serve as Program Director for the low-residency MFA Program in Creative Writing. Her first full-length book of poetry is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press. Her WGSS experience at ISU is infused in everything she does, from her writing and teaching, to her activism and advocacy work. Her training in women's history, especially, is critical to the feminism she practices in her professional and personal life.
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Katelyn Wood
2007 Minor
Katelyn is an Assistant Professor in Theater History and Performance at the University of Virginia. She has a new book, Cracking Up: Black Feminist Comedy in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Century United States , released in 2021 and says, "It's been a joy to finally see the book out in the world!"
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Andrew Anastasia
2006 Minor
Andrew was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of English at Harper College. He was a member of the 2019-2020 Social Justice Leadership Cohort at Harper and completed his final project on developing equity-based, trauma-informed curricular infusions for faculty to implement across campus. Recent conference presentations and invited talks have included creating trauma-informed composition classrooms and working with white, heterosexual, cisgender fragility in the classroom through understanding psychosomatic responses to discomfort and cognitive dissonance.
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Sarah Ehlers
2004 Minor
Sarah is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Houston. She is the author of Left of Poetry Depression American and the Formation of Modern Poetics (2019) and reports that she has spent the past year adjusting to online teaching. She recently began her term as the Director of Graduate Studies at UofH.
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Jody L Herman
1999 Graduate Certificate
Jody was recently promoted to Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute, a research center at the UCLA School of Law focused on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. Her work focuses on the prevalence and impact of discrimination against transgender people. She's served as co-principal investigator on the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey and is working on several papers examining the relationship between mental health indicators and access to gender-affirming care for trans adults. She is also working on updated estimates on the size and demographic characteristics of the U.S. trans population and two NIH-funded studies that seek to improve sexual orientation and gender identity mortality data and the health and experiences of nonbinary youth. Based in Los Angeles, she splits her time between LA and Peoria, IL, where she grew up.